The present invention relates to a hand knitting or crochet needle which is normally comprised of a metal or plastic tip operating as a needle and an elongated flexible loop-receiving rod or shaft which is preferably of the diameter smaller than that of the tip.
Various modifications of hand needles of the type under consideration, made in the form of knitting needles or crochet needles have been known. The tip of such a needle is normally made of metal, such as steel, brass, aluminum, or synthetic plastic material. The loop-receiving rod or shaft formed, for example of NYLON cord or wire is secured to the rear narrowing end of the working tip. The loop-receiving rod is easily bendable due to its elasticity so that although the greatest bending radius of the rod is relatively large the rod itself is of such stiffness that the manipulation of the needle is not influenced.
The advantage of such conventional hand knitting or crochet needles resides in that such needles are not very bulky and that the knitted or crocketted portion does not hang with its entire weight at the rear end of the needle so that working with such needles is not difficult though the knitted portion usually rests on the ground or on the lap of a user. To prevent the loops taken by the loop-receiving rod from slipping off from the free end of the shaft, opposite to the needle tip, a thin plate of synthetic plastic material, provided with an axial bore, is slidably positioned on the loop-receiving rod. This axial bore is formed so that the position of the plate on the loop-receiving rod can be adjusted due to the displacement of this plate, whereby friction forces exerted between the plate and the loop-receiving rod would be sufficiently great to prevent the plate from the displacement.
In order to avoid, on the one hand, slipping of the plate from the free end of the loop-receiving rod the latter normally has an upsetting thickening in the form of a node.
It should be noted that the free end of the loop-receiving rod can be easily entangled in the knitted loops of the cloth, which is extremely undesired in hand work. A disk-shaped button at the outer end of the loop-receiving rod has been suggested which acted as a loop brake. However, such a button can itself be caught in the knitted loops, particularly when loops are of great size. If such a button is displaced in the direction of the needle tip in order to shorten the effective length of the loop-receiving rod the node at the end of the rod can be easily entangled in the fine loops. It has been also observed that the centrally positioned axial bore in the disk-shaped button becomes worn out in some time and the fixing of the button at any remaining portion of the loop-receiving rod would be no longer possible. Thus the button would no longer function as a loop brake.
The above mentioned disadvantages of conventional knitting or crochet needles negatively affect the operation of such needles. A further disadvantage of known needles of the foregoing type is the so-called blister packing of the loaded needle. Because the disk-shaped button extends normally to the axis of elongation of the loop-receiving rod the whole needle in its curved position has a considerably great height. The button forms bucklings in the packing formations, which make the suspension of the rows of knitted cloth on the hooks difficult and enlarge packing volumes.